Saturday, November 30, 2002

OUR TAX MONEY AT WORK

Henry Lamb has written a shocking expose on the federal money going into the pockets of environmental groups. Take a look and Think About It!

God Bless
Elaine


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Tracking fed handouts to radical greens

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Posted: November 30, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern

WorldNetDaily.com

Environmental organizations are among the first to cry "corporate welfare," "subsidized" ranching, grazing, mining, logging, as well as and whatever else may be on their agenda at the moment. All the while, these same environmental organizations belly-up to the federal trough every year to get their subsidy from the American taxpayers.

Just how much money do the taxpayers fork over to environmental organizations? Nobody knows. Ask your congressman and your senator. They can't tell you. That's right, nobody knows.

Back in 1983, Congress tried to get a handle on how much money was being handed out, and to whom. They created the Federal Assistance Awards Data System. Through this system, every federal agency that makes grants is supposed to report to the Census Bureau, which in turn is supposed to compile the data and make the information available to the public.

The Census Bureau has historically compiled the data in the aggregate, and produced reports for Congress, that show how much money is disbursed – by congressional district, by state, even by county – for certain causes. Nowhere could an average person find how much money was given to a particular organization by a particular government agency – without a custom-written computer program.

Mark Lamb, the Environmental Conservation Organization's computer guru, wrote a program that allows the organization's members to find any grant to any organization (and for what purpose) that has been reported through the FAADS.

Wow! The information is staggering. For example, since 1996, 4,500 grants have been reported for "environmental" purposes, totaling more than $1 billion to environmental organizations. Another thousand grants, totaling $138 million have been reported for "forests." The list seems to go on forever.

Looking more specifically between 1997 and 2001, FAADS reported $82 million given to The Nature Conservancy. This is a sizeable amount for taxpayers to subsidize an environmental organization that has more assets and income than many third-world countries. But the FAADS data is not complete.

Now that we have access to the data, we have discovered that not all grants have been reported. The Office of Management and Budget has another program that audits grants to a single recipient in excess of $300,000 in a single year. A review of the audits for the same period reveals that The Nature Conservancy actually received $146.6 million instead of the $82 million reported through FAADS.

The FAADS legislation provided no enforcement mechanism, and until now, it has not been possible to see the data reported. The significant discrepancy between FAADS and the audit program raises serious questions about the validity of all of the reports based on the FAADs data.

What is certain is that the federal government is giving away far too much money to environmental organizations.

During the same period, U.S. taxpayers subsidized the World Wildlife Fund to the tune of $92.6 million and the Environmental Careers Organization, $52 million. The Environmental Careers Organization pays interns to work in various government agencies, organizations, the private sector and to go to school.

U.S. taxpayers also subsidize international environmental organizations. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives received subsidies totaling $5.6 million. The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies received subsidies totaling $4.6 million. ICLEI is a powerful voice at all U.N. meetings relating to the environment. It claims to represent local "authority," but what it actually represents are local environmental organizations.

There is absolutely no justification for the U.S. taxpayer to subsidize these organizations. For the most part, these organizations exist for the purpose of promoting public policy to advance their agendas, which consistently condemn subsidies for everyone else but themselves.

It's time to stop the subsidies to environmental organizations. Period.

The federal government should stop all grants to not-for-profit organizations that are not directly involved in distributing food, shelter or health care to individuals. A review of grants to environmental organizations reveals that their activities consist largely of "outreach, education and capacity building," which is the politically-correct way to spell propaganda.

Grants to environmental organizations exploded during the Clinton/Gore years, and agency officials feathered the nests from which they came – and to which many returned. Congress will not likely move to stop this waste and abuse of tax dollars unless there is a riotous demand from the voters.

Voters, it's time to demand an end to subsidies for the greens.










Friday, November 29, 2002



Good Friday Morning Everyone.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I wish I could post a happy little article today and say all is right with the world. I wish I could write about the beautiful weather and the crisp frosty Georgia morning air. However, that is not the general purpose of this blog site and the article I am going to post today is shocking and sad.

Each time I want to believe that our leaders really care for us and are working for our good, truths like the one I am posting today, are revealed and once again I must look at our country under the light of truth and not hope so.

Our President appointed Henry Kissinger to head a committee not to investigate what really happened on 911 but to "learn" from it. In the article posted today, Charlotte Iserbyt writes on the history of this man. "Iserbyt served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration, where she first blew the whistle on a major technology initiative which would control curriculum in America's classrooms."

Take a look and think about this one. In light of truths that are coming out you can then make educated decisions on the direction our country is taking and I believe the direction is a faster move into the New World Order. The things spoken of in this article are documented. Hold on to your seat and get ready for some shocking information.

God Bless America And May The People Wake Up!
Elaine


KISSINGER OUT OF THE CLOSET

Charlotte Iserbyt

November 27, 2002

NewsWithViews.com
Nothing much shocks this writer anymore. The misnamed Patriot Act, the Orwellian Office of Homeland Security, Bush's alliance with ex-KGB Putin, the trampling on our God-given rights through UN treaties, the United Nations Lifelong Education Plan referred to by the National Alliance of Business as Kindergarten-Age 80.

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, it is snowing here in Maine, and very beautiful. I had decided to live my other life, the normal one which finds me staring out the window at the gorgeous ships captains houses on our street, enjoying the smells of the woodstove and my husband's pumpkin pies emanating from the kitchen, taking my dachshund for a walk in town.

Today I was just going to pretend I live in the America of yesteryear... America, the envy of the rest of the world that has decided it wants to emulate the rest of the world by becoming part of a totalitarian international order based on the "failed" and "cruel" system of socialism, fascism, communism. I was going to try to forget how our country is being taken from us, without firing a shot. (This stealing of our free political and economic system can perhaps be attributed to the "deliberate" dumbing down of America since if one does not know what form of economic and political system one has one doesn't care if it is taken away from him.)

And then, all of a sudden, I was jolted by news that our conservative, born-again Christian (member of The Order...Skull and Bones... Yale University) President Bush has appointed "enemy of all enemies of America", former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, to lead an investigation of the September 11 attacks.

Of all people! Truly, Dubya, couldn't you have found someone a bit less controversial, someone whose track record does not include the following information? What a nasty "in your face" thing to pull on us the day before Thanksgiving.

As a writer, I have remained quiet for many years holding onto the following information regarding Kissinger since I hoped that he had completed his dirty work (wrong) and was no longer a threat (wrong).

In 1974 a very important little book entitled "Henry Kissinger... Soviet Agent" was written by the late Frank A. Capell, one of America's great patriots. Some background information on Capell follows:

Capell was an Associate Editor of The Review of the News and American Mercury magazine and his articles appeared intermittently in over forty publications. Beginning as an undercover criminal investigator (tight-roper) for District Attorneys and Police Commissioners, he later became Chief Investigator of the Westchester County (N.Y) Sheriff's Office. In this capacity he established a Bureau of Subversive Activities and supervised the investigation of thousands of individuals and organizations, including Nazis, Fascists, and Communists.

For the benefit of younger readers who know little about Henry Kissinger, let me give them some background information on Kissinger and his world government policies taken from Capell's book.

"Kissinger has stated, 'Ending the war (in Vietnam), [which by the way was a United Nations War, ed] honorably is essential for the peace of the world. Any other solution may unloose forces that would complicate prospects of international order.' And this is what Kissinger and his intellectual colleagues want: international order, which would consist of World Government in a World of Disarmament. Kissinger recommended a start toward this in "The Troubled Partnership" in 1965 in which he found a need for improved consultation among the allies. He advocated a 'United Europe with federal supranational institutions as the precondition for an Atlantic partnership,' or regional government. (p 21)
Iserbyt Note: Former President of the Soviet Union Gorbachev, during a visit to London in March 23, 2000, referred to the European Union as "The New European Soviet". The New American, June 17, 2002.

"Professor Henry Paolucci, of St. John's University, wrote a study about Kissinger which appeared in the Congressional Record of August 4, 1971, a portion of which states: 'Henry Kissinger, too, expressed as recently as 1965 the conviction that the time was at hand for a surrender of nationhood because 'institutions based on present concepts of national sovereignty are not enough.' The ultimate goal of a supranationalist world community, he wrote, 'will not come quickly; many intermediate stages must be traversed before it can be reached. It is not too early, however, to prepare ourselves for this step beyond the nation-state.'" (p 21)

"The shape of the New World Government was foretold in Commentary, the official magazine of the American Jewish Committee in New York, which stated in 1958: 'The international government of the United Nations, stripped of its legal trimming, then is really the international government of the United States and the Soviet Union acting in unison.' (p 5)

Iserbyt Note: This comment by the AJC in N.Y. reflects clearly what Norman Dodd, the Research Director of the Reece Committee to Investigate the Tax Exempt Foundations was told in 1953 by Rowan Gaither, President of the Ford Foundation: "Mr. Dodd, all of us here at the policy making level of the foundation have at one time or another served in the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, CIA (forerunner) or the European Economic Administration, operating under directives from the White House. We operate under those same directives...The substance under which we operate is that we shall use our grant making power to so alter life in the United States that we can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union." (p 46-47), the deliberate dumbing down of america... A Chronological Paper Trail, Iserbyt. President Eisenhower signed the first agreements with the Soviet Union in 1958 during the peak of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan and the Carnegie Corporation signed extensive agreements with the Soviet Union merging the United States and Soviet education systems. These agreements are still in effect even though the Soviet Union and communism are supposedly dead.

Now to the meat of this story, much of which has been copied from Capell's "Henry Kissinger...Soviet Agent" published in 1973.

"An anti-Communist who infiltrated Polish Communist Intelligence and rose to the equivalent rank of general has now named Henry Kissinger as a Soviet agent, recruited into a special group known as ODRA while he was a sergeant in the U.S. Armed Forces in Germany during World War II. The information obtained from this general was found to be accurate in all cases where it was checked out. He was responsible for uncovering a long list of KGB (Soviet intelligence) and GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) agents and officers. Among these were Soviet colonel Koilon Molody, alias Gordon Lonsdale, and his four agents, Henry Houghton, Ethel Gee, and Peter and Helen Kroger, alias Cohen, operating in Great Britain. Through Houghton was developed the case of KGB agent John Vassal of British Naval Intelligence official connected with MI-6 in London. Another case was that of George Blake, a very high British Intelligence official connected with MI-6 in London. (p 2-3)

"Firmly entrenched KGB and GRU networks in many parts of the Free World were not only uncovered by this informant but the individuals were arrested, tried and convicted. In the United States, however no action was taken on his information.

(p 3)

"It was in 1961 and 1962 that our source informed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) about Kissinger who at that time appeared to be an unimportant Harvard professor. In 1973 he again brought the matter to the attention of the British Security Service and American Intelligence since Kissinger was no longer "unimportant," having become President Nixon's National Security Adviser. Since the controlled press and communications media have given no publicity to the charges concerning Kissinger, only those persons with access to small independent publications have learned that Kissinger has been named as a Soviet agent. Many persons, however, have come to the conclusion based solely on his activities. (p 4)

"It was while Kissinger was serving with the U.S. Armed Forces in Germany during World War II that he became a member of a secret Soviet network, one of a series of intelligence and counterintelligence groups, some of which were reorganized at the end of World War II and continue in place to this day. This information had been furnished to U.S. and British intelligence services in 1961 and 1962, and 1973, only to see it completely ignored. The Review of the News of March 20, 1974 first published the story which was also recounted in the Confidential Intelligence Report of The Herald of Freedom in April, 1974. The source was Col. Michael Goleniewski whose real name is Aleksei Nicholaevich Romanoff. The true identify of Aleksei as the heir to the All-Russian Imperial Throne is known to the governments of the United States, Great Britain, and other countries. On June 11, 1971, the New York Daily Mirror announced the exclusive publication of "Reminiscenses and Observations" by H.I.H. Aleksei Nicholaevich Romanoff, the heir to All-Russian Imperial Throne, Tsarevich and Grand Duke of Russia, and head of Russian Imperial House. In introducing him as a columnist, the Daily Mirror stated: "Herman E. Kimsey, former Chief of Research & Analysis of the Headquarters of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, in an affidavit signed June 3, 1965, said 'I m convinced, and I continue to be convinced, that the person referred to as Col. Goleniewski is in fact the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Aleksei Nicholaevich Romanoff of Russia, and son of Emperor Nicholai II of Russia.' (p 74-75)

Note: (The author of this article [Iserbyt] corresponded with Col. Goleniewski in the mid- seventies. Unfortunately, my very important file on this case was destroyed in a fire, including correspondence with Goleniewski and an article in The Bangor Daily News regarding Gardner Cowles, Look Magazine, planning to publish a book by Goleniewski, which never happened!)

"The story of ODRA and Henry Kissinger's connection with it was disclosed by Col. Goleniewski as follows: 'ODRA's principal purpose was the infiltration and penetration of military intelligence services in the West. ... In 1954 an important courier, a woman of Greek-Russian nationality, had been murdered under mysterious circumstances and important material, together with approximately $80,000 of intelligence funds, disappeared.'" (p 77-78)

To make a long story short, "Col. Goleniewski had access to 1500 pages of documents related to this mysterious murder, which included a list of the names and code names and short data on the principal agents of ODRA. (p 79)

"Under the code name of "Bor" and described as an agent of ODRA was U.S. Sergeant (and later Captain) Kissinger, counterintelligence interrogator of the U.S. Army and instructor at the Military Intelligence School in Oberammergau. (p 80)

"The information concerning Henry Kissinger could be verified and confirmed by independent sources as there was no doubt he was in touch with Communist intelligence during his military service in Germany. Since his phenomenal rise to power in the United States government, Kissinger has been accompanied during his visits behind the Iron Curtain by staff officers of intelligence or counterintelligence of the KGB, which raises the question as to whether he is still in the service of the KGB. (p 81)

"The accuracy of information supplied by Aleksei (Col. Goleniewski) was attested to during the Senate Internal Security hearings entitled "State Department Security." The committee's chief counsel questioned a witness (John Norpel, Jr.) who had been with the FBI and State Department Security. He was asked, 'Do you know of any information ever furnished to the U.S. Government by Goleniewski which turned out to be untrue or inaccurate?' The witness answered, 'I do not. No sir,' and also testified that the considerable information supplied by Col. Goleniewski had been checked out and proved to be true in every case." (p 82)

The following info is in addition to the above information regarding President Bush's bizarre appointment to the Ccommission to Investigate 9/11.

In the mid-seventies when the SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) was being discussed by the U.S. Senate, the author of this article (Iserbyt) arranged for a Soviet defector by the name of Igor Glagolev to come to Maine to participate in a debate with Secretary of Defense Paul Warnke. This debate was arranged by Maine's Chamber of Commerce. Glagolev did a superb job presenting reasons why the United States should not sign onto this Treaty. At dinner the same evening Glagolev informed me that prior to his defection, when he held a very high position in the Kremlin, he sat in on meetings at which David Rockefeller Sr. and Henry Kissinger were often present. At one of these meetings Kissinger shocked his Soviet audience by informing it that the United States was planning to pull out of Vietnam. This information, of course, was transferred to the North Vietnamese and put United States military forces at a great disadvantage.

Americans should demand of their Congressional representatives an investigation of Henry Kissinger's track record before he is allowed to serve in any capacity on any committee for any purpose.

© 2002 Charlotte T. Iserbyt - All Rights Reserved




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Charlotte Iserbyt is the consummate whistleblower! Iserbyt served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration, where she first blew the whistle on a major technology initiative which would control curriculum in America's classrooms. Iserbyt is a former school board director in Camden, Maine and was co-founder and research analyst of Guardians of Education for Maine (GEM) from 1978 to 2000. She has also served in the American Red Cross on Guam and Japan during the Korean War, and in the United States Foreign Service in Belgium and in the Republic of South Africa. Iserbyt is a speaker and writer, best known for her 1985 booklet Back to Basics Reform or OBE: Skinnerian International Curriculum and her 1989 pamphlet Soviets in the Classroom: America's Latest Education Fad which covered the details of the U.S.-Soviet and Carnegie-Soviet Education Agreements which remain in effect to this day. She is a freelance writer and has had articles published in Human Events, The Washington Times, The Bangor Daily News, and included in the record of Congressional hearings.

Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt Author The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America...A Chronological Paper Trail. Website: www.deliberatedumbingdown.com

VISIT THIS EXCITING NEWSITE: News With Views

************Articles like the one above should cause all Christians everywhere to fall to their knees in intercessory prayer for our country! This article once again reveals that the big players on the world scene are dedicated to a One World Government and they will not stop until they have it. However, it will be a grand day for sure when they encounter the God of the Bible who warned us of these events through Bible Prophecy.
Think About It!



Thursday, November 28, 2002






HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE MORELANDS






Last night at church, our Laura sang a Sandi Patti arrangement of God Bless America. There were many tears in the congregation as we paused to think about our men and women in uniform who have been called away from home to serve and defend our country. Today, they are away from their famlies and are on the front lines protecting us from those who hate America. It is my prayer that the Lord will minister to them in a special way today and give us victory over our enemies.

God Bless America!
Elaine




Here is part two of the Thanksgiving story. I pray it blesses all who read about our wonderful Godly Heritage.
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In 1777, the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the providential victory at Saratoga. The 1777 Thanksgiving proclamation reveals its New England Puritan roots. The day was still officially a religious observance in recognition of God's Providence, and, as on the Sabbath, both work and amusements were forbidden. It does not resemble our idea of a Thanksgiving, with its emphasis on family dinners and popular recreation. Yet beneath these stern sentiments, the old Puritan fervor had declined to the extent that Thanksgiving was beginning to be less of a religious and more of a secular celebration. The focus was shifting from the religious service to the family gathering. Communities still dutifully went to church each Thanksgiving Day but the social and culinary attractions were increasing in importance.

A contemporary account of a wartime Thanksgiving provides us alternative testimony to the austere official proclamation. Juliana Smith's 1779 Massachusetts' Thanksgiving description, written in a letter to her friend Betsey Smith (and recorded in her diary as well) provides a good example of what the late 18th century celebration meant to the participants.

National Thanksgivings were proclaimed annually by Congress from 1777 to 1783 which, except for 1782, were all celebrated in December. After a five year hiatus, the practice was revived by President Washington in 1789 and 1795. John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799, while James Madison declared the holiday twice in 1815; none of these were celebrated in the autumn. After 1815, there were no further national Thanksgivings until the Civil War. As sectional differences widened in the Antebellum period, it was impossible achieve the consensus to have a national Thanksgiving. The southern states were generally unreceptive to a "Yankee" custom being pressed on them by the federal government. If the federal government neglected the tradition, however, the individual states did not. The New England states continued to declare annual Thanksgivings (usually in November, although not always on the same day), and eventually most of the other states also had independent observations of the holiday. New Englanders were born proselyters and wherever they went during the great westward migration they introduced their favorite holiday. Thanksgiving was adopted first in the Northeast and in the Northwest Territory, then by the middle and western states. At mid-century even the southern states were celebrating their own Thanksgivings.

By the 1840s when the Puritan holy day had largely given way to the Yankee holiday, Thanksgiving was usually depicted in a family setting with dinner as the central event. The archetypal tradition of harvest celebration had weathered Puritan disapproval and quietly reasserted its influence. Newspapers and magazines helped popularize the holiday in its new guise as a secular autumn celebration featuring feasting, family reunions and charity to the poor. Thanksgiving became an important symbol of the new emphasis on home life and the necessity of enforcing family virtues against the coarse masculine style and cutthroat business practices of the day. This "cult of domesticity" found Thanksgiving a valuable element for promulgating the feminist goals of social reform and the role of the (extended) family as a bastion against the callous workaday world. The holiday focused on the home and hearth where it was hoped a revolution in manners would begin to restore the civilized virtues which had been lost in the new commercial and industrial society.

It is interesting that the same person who was a leading figure in the domesticity movement, Sarah Josepha Hale, also labored for decades to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. A New England author and editor of the influential Godey's Ladies Book, Hale lobbied for a return to the morality and simplicity of days gone by. Each November from 1846 until 1863 Mrs. Hale printed an editorial urging the federal government to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. She was finally gratified when Abraham Lincoln declared the first of our modern series of annual Thanksgiving holidays for the last Thursday in November, 1863. Lincoln had previously declared national Thanksgivings for April, 1862, and again for August 6, 1863, after the northern victory at Gettysburg. The southern states had independently declared Thanksgivings of their own, unsullied by Yankee influences, but would later resent the new national Thanksgiving holiday after the war.

Lincoln went on to declare a similar Thanksgiving observance in 1864, establishing a precedent that was followed by Andrew Johnson in 1865 and by every subsequent president. After a few deviations (December 7th in 1865, November 18th in 1869), the holiday came to rest on the last Thursday in November. However, Thanksgiving remained a custom unsanctified by law until 1941! In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to the last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving. Considerable controversy (mostly following political lines) arose around this outrage to custom, so that some Americans celebrated Thanksgiving on the 23rd and others on the 30th (including Plymouth, MA). In 1940, the country was once again divided over "Franksgiving" as the Thanksgiving declared for November 21st was called. Thanksgiving was declared for the earlier Thursday again in 1941, but Roosevelt admitted that the earlier date (which had not proven useful to the commercial interests) was a mistake. On November 26, 1941, he signed a bill that established the fourth Thursday in November as the national Thanksgiving holiday, which it has been ever since.

First American National Thanksgiving - 1777
Declared by the Continental Congress following Burgoyne's Defeat at Saratoga.

November 1, 1777


"Forasmuch as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such further Blessings as they stand in Need of: And it having pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defence and Establishment of our inalienable Rights and Liberties...It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these UNITED STATES, to set apart THURSDAY, the eighteenth Day of December next, for the Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise: That at one Time and with one voice, the good People may express themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor... And it is further recommended, That servile labour, and such Recreations, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion."





To Learn More About Our Early Christian History Go to: The Plymouth Society

Thanksgiving Song Of Praise: Thanks To God






Wednesday, November 27, 2002






HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE MORELANDS





The truth about this wonderful holiday is a living testimony to our Puritan forefathers. Of course the kids in our federal schools cannot be taught this particular portion of our history because it would offend the Secular Humanist who choose to believe America was never a Christian Nation.

I hope you will enjoy the blog today and tomorrow. It is Part 1 and Part 2 of this wonderful story of our heritage. America was truly founded “Under God” and it is my prayer that we will continue to see a resurgence of the Christian faith in our nation. You can find lots of interesting historical facts at the site this story came from. Go To: The Plymouth Society
A wish for a safe and Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours.
God Bless
Elaine

Thanksgiving in American History - Part 1

Our Thanksgiving holiday has its origin in the Puritan Thanksgivings of colonial New England. Both the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Boston Puritans were strict Calvinist protestants who rejected the religious calendar of holidays that the English people inherited from the Middle Ages. They believed that Christmas, Easter and the Saints' days were not part of a true Christian church, but man-made inventions which should be discarded. Instead, they observed only the three religious holidays for which they could find New Testament justification; the Sunday Sabbath, Days of Fasting and Humiliation and Days of Thanksgiving and Praise.

The Fast Day and the Thanksgiving Day holidays were essentially two sides of the same coin. Thanksgivings marked favorable ("mercies"), and Fast Days unfavorable ("judgements") circumstances in community life. They were declared in response to God's Providence, as the faithful believed that God's pleasure or displeasure with his people was signaled by worldly events. Both were scheduled on this contingent basis and were never assigned fixed positions in the calendar. However, Fast Days more often occurred in the spring (when there was nothing much to eat anyway), and Thanksgivings were usually declared after the harvest in the autumn. Thanksgivings or Fast Days could be declared at any time by individual churches, towns or the colonial governments. There could be more than one in a single year or none at all. Unlike the Catholic or Anglican Thanksgivings, they were never on Sunday to avoid conflict with the Sabbath. They usually fell on the weekday regularly set aside as "Lecture Day," which was Wednesday in Connecticut and Thursday in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. Lecture Day was a mid-week church meeting (often coinciding with the market day) when topical sermons were enjoyed by the colonists.

Despite a number of claims for a chronological "First Thanksgiving" from other parts of the country such as Virginia, Florida and Texas, the holiday we know today evolved directly from this New England tradition. Strictly speaking, there never was a "First Thanksgiving" in the sense of a particular celebration that initiated the regular observance of the holiday we know today. The famous 1621 Pilgrim event, which was transformed into an archetypal First Thanksgiving in the late nineteenth century, was in fact not a true Thanksgiving at all. It was rather a secular harvest celebration which as far as we know was never repeated. The event had been entirely forgotten until a reference to it was rediscovered in the 1820s. The first real Calvinist Thanksgiving in New England was celebrated in Plymouth Colony, but it was during the summer of 1623 when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops were saved by a providential shower.

When things were going well, or some special dispensation occurred such as the arrival of a crucial supply ship, a successful harvest or victory in war, New Englanders declared a day of Thanksgiving. Everyone gathered at the meetinghouse where they gave thanks to God for their blessings, and then went home to a celebratory dinner which might involve just the family, or be a community event including their friends and neighbors, as well. If things were going badly—there was not enough food to eat, the Native Americans showed signs of resistance, the crops were failing or disease caused a number of unexplained deaths—then a day of Fasting and Humiliation was called for. Again everyone went to church to ask God for His forgiveness and guidance. The people were reminded of their moral and religious responsibilities, and urged to control not only their own sinfulness but also that of other people in the community to avert God's displeasure. There was no big dinner to follow, although a modest meal could be taken in the evening.

The Puritans disputed whether only the unique or impressive acts of Providence could be acknowledged with Thanksgivings, or should the "generals," -- God's continuing care for His people in providing them with the necessities of life, be celebrated as well. While thanks were given on a regular basis at Sabbath services and in family prayers and graces, many people thought it suitable that the community as a whole set some time aside to thank God for these mundane considerations. It was in this spirit that the annually occurring autumn Thanksgiving evolved. Once the harvest was over and the year drawing to a close, the need to bring the community together in some sort of celebratory recognition of the year's blessings became crucial. In England or the other colonies, the Christmas holidays provided this important social function. In New England, where Christmas had briefly been illegal and not generally celebrated until the mid-nineteenth century, the annual autumn Thanksgiving took over the role Christmas played elsewhere in providing feasting and celebration at the onset of winter.

The custom of annually occurring autumnal Thanksgivings was established throughout New England by the mid-17th century. If Plymouth celebrated the first New England Thanksgiving and, with Boston, established Thursday as the standard day for the event, it was Connecticut which first made it an irregular yet annual holiday. A large part of the pleasurable anticipation associated with Thanksgiving occurred while everyone eagerly waited to hear when it would be scheduled. Once the authorities announced the date a few weeks before the event, each family happily began the process of preparation for the event, baking pies and arranging with relations for the dinner which marked the event. It would be fairest perhaps to say that all of New England shared in the creation of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Stay Tuned For Part Two.




Tuesday, November 26, 2002

I THINK WE JUST MIGHT BE WINNING!

There is a dilemma about the slave tax that is imposed on the American People! What to do with the Income Tax? That is the question! Stand ready to make your voice heard on this one in that it will have longstanding effects on our children and grandchildren. There is a chance, if the grassroots people in this country stand together, we can see this intrusive and socialistic tax ended once and for all.

I am also providing a link below to an article regarding a trial right now in which the IRS is trying to shut down a website and harness free speech. The IRS will not answer the questions asked and the judge has realized this fact. Will keep you posted as events unfold.

God Bless
Elaine

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THE POWER TO DESTROY
Income tax to end
within few years?
Group sees realistic chance to replace it with consumption levy


Visit The World Net Daily---------------------

Posted: November 26, 2002
By Jon Dougherty
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com



Legislation backed by national grass-roots efforts and constituent pressure on lawmakers over the next few years could lead to the replacement of the income tax in favor of a consumption tax, says the official spokesman for a noted tax-reform group.

"Patriotism, as it regards our American flag, is at an all-time high," said Herman Cain of the 420,000-member Americans for Fair Taxation, or AFT. "But there's also an analogy [regarding taxes] to the American flag that isn't so patriotic."

"When we get our paychecks with all the deductions of federal taxes, we see red," Cain, who is CEO of the Godfather's Pizza chain, told WorldNetDaily in a wide-ranging interview. "When we go to make a purchase, with the embedded, hidden taxes that are in the cost of goods and services, we see white. And then, on April 15, when we file our tax returns, we turn blue. Then, to make matters worse, when you die, your family sees stars" because of inheritance taxes, he said.

In short, Americans are getting taxed coming and going, say AFT officials, and most people aren't even aware how much of their income goes to government – local, state and federal.

With that in mind, Cain says, AFT, coming off its first-ever national convention, is perhaps the country's staunchest advocate for replacing the current income tax with a consumption tax. Says the group: "The current federal income tax system is broken. Patching up the existing code is pointless. It's time for a fresh approach, a fair approach. It's time for a fair tax."

And at least partially because of the efforts of Cain and AFT, serious tax reform is once again emerging as a core issue among some lawmakers and the Bush administration. Indeed, the Washington Post in October reported that some in the administration have begun to support fundamental tax reform and are eyeing a consumption-tax plan over the current income tax because, they believe, if implemented, a consumption tax would simplify the process and be a boon to economic growth.

In the interim, the Washington Times reported yesterday, White House analysts and advisers – emboldened by Republicans' historic midterm election gains – say they are considering presenting to the president economic stimulus packages containing, among other measures, new accelerated tax cuts.

Skeptics of the administration's reform plan, however, said last week that while they supported an overhaul of the Internal Revenue Service and what they described as the cumbersome, inefficient income-tax system, they were wary that Americans could ultimately wind up paying a consumption and income tax.

One skeptic, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said the government's fundamental flaw is that it is too big and as such consumes too much of Americans' paychecks. He worries that Congress' voracious appetite for earners' wages could mean Americans would end up with an income and consumption tax. And he says unless government downsizes, its desire for cash isn't likely to decrease anytime soon, regardless of the form of taxation used.

Cain said fundamentally he agrees that Washington's tax appetite is too large – Americans now pay the highest peacetime rates in history, say analysts – but he thinks downsizing government should come second to radically reforming the system of taxation.

"The radical idea isn't the national sales tax," he said. "The radical idea is staying with the screwed-up system we currently have. Because of the way our system works, I do not believe we can solve both of those problems at the same time."

He said addressing the waste, fraud, unfairness and abuse of the current code should come first before tackling "the second issue" of how the government spends tax money.

"People who are skeptical about change … are [also] skeptical about returning to people and workers more of the decision-making power that they would have over their own income," Cain said. "What can possibly be wrong with the U.S. economy unleashing its full potential? Nothing. It's win-win for everybody."

Asked if he believed lawmakers had the political will to overhaul the confusing labyrinth of rules, regulations and loopholes that comprise the current system of taxation, Cain said he thought a window of opportunity would present itself if voters made their presence felt at the polls.

"A threat to being re-elected coming from the voters in every district in the country" would force most lawmakers from both parties to revamp the system, he said.

"I'm convinced that the only thing that will cause major needed change is a groundswell of voter support," he said. And he believes AFT's plan is the most sound and most salable.

"The national consumption tax is a single issue that is very difficult for the powerbrokers to confuse people [about] by talking about the other related issues," he said. "[AFT's] single objective is to … educate voters about" why it is better.

The group's tax focus centers on legislation originally offered in 2000 by Rep. John Linder, R-Ga. Called the "Fair Tax Act," Linder's bill calls for the repeal of all federal taxes except excise taxes; it repeals all corporate and individual income taxes, payroll taxes, self-employment taxes, capital gains taxes, estate taxes and gift taxes, and in their place imposes a revenue-neutral national sales tax on all new goods and services at the point of final purchase for consumption.

The "fair tax," says Cain, is a truly voluntary tax because it hinges on taxing consumption, not income. Besides being more universal, he said it would also fully fund the federal government, including Social Security and Medicare. As an added benefit, you wouldn't need an expert to determine your federal taxes.

The fact that the administration is even considering such dramatic changes to the tax code is encouraging, Cain said, because "at least there will be a dialogue" about what to do and how to do it when it comes to taxation.

Consideration "leads to dialogue in the press and in Congress about not just reform but replacement," he said. "That's significant."

Indeed, since the Post article there has been increased dialogue about reforming taxes.

"Tax experts from universities and research institutes have trooped into Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill's spacious office for months now," the New York Times reported Sunday. "Some come to feed his passion for overhauling the tax code, others to temper it. Some come bearing specific plans for achieving his ambitious goal, others with advice based on long experience in the political trenches, where the idea of making the tax code simpler, fairer and more economically efficient is as perilous as it is alluring."

On Nov. 7, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels told Fox News that President Bush "wants a full range of options and he has commissioned a look at everything from a very far-reaching reform to simplifications of the code we have now."

Daniels said Bush had "not made any decisions" but said the president "just wants to know what his choices are."

On Nov. 17, columnist Nolan Finley, writing for the Detroit News, said Americans could be "richer" if lawmakers would "kill the income tax."

O'Neill "is quietly exploring a plan to do away with the income tax, that punitive system of taxation adopted in 1913 that spawned an un-American strain of collectivism," Finley wrote. "The income tax promotes the notion that the first fruits of hard work and enterprise belong to the government, not the individual."

The income tax, he said, "places a high price on success, hard work and risk-taking, and seeks to force equalization by confiscating a greater share as incomes rise."

Finley wrote that Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth in Washington, D.C., and a leading proponent "of nuking the income tax," believes "the goal of taxation should be to make the poor richer, not the rich poorer.

"A tax code designed to redistribute wealth can't accomplish that. But one that stimulates growth and investment can," said Finley.

Also, Michael J. Graetz, the Justus S. Hotchkiss professor of law at Yale University and a former deputy assistant secretary of the treasury for tax policy, says 100 million Americans shouldn't be paying an income tax.

"In his essay, '100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Fresh Start for the U.S. Tax System,' published in the current issue of the Yale Law Journal, Graetz cites several reasons to reform the current U.S. income tax," says the M2 Presswire. "Among them are growing public perception that the income tax is unfair and overly complex; the trend toward aggressive tax planning and tax avoidance; and the increasingly unmanageable administrative burden placed on the Internal Revenue Service."

Graetz is proposing a value-added tax, or VAT, used by 120 countries. It is similar to a national sales tax, but it is collected at all stages of production rather than just from retailers.

"Between now and two years from November, AFT will engage in a massive voter-education effort to keep this issue on the front burner, along with the war on terror and, possibly, another potential war we're considering," said Cain. "The more we can bring visibility to this idea to the forefront in the next two years, within the next four years perhaps we can get some movement on it."

Of AFT's first national convention, Cain said, "it exceeded our expectations."

"Over 200 people paid their own money to come to the convention," he said. "In terms of the motivation people had when they left there, it was exceptional


*************Check Out This Article At USA Daily: IRS And DOJ Attempt To Prohibit Tax Education Groups First Amendment Rights

Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants. -- William Penn




Monday, November 25, 2002

Churches Are Re-Thinking Doctrine! Think About It.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me
. John 14.

Who would have thought that a little box would turn the church world on it's head? Well this box that contained the bones of the James the brother of our Lord and the first pastor of the Jerusalem Church has! Those churches who practice Maryology are wondering what this find will mean to their doctrines. For those who believe in the inerrant Word of God and know that our blessed Savior is all we need, I believe you will enjoy looking at this interesting article. I think it is wonderful that the Lord has allowed this new find to be brought to the worlds attention at this particular time. Hope you enjoy.
God Bless
Elaine

World Net Daily.

NEWS STORY
Ossuary suggests Mary wasn't a virgin
The stone box first caused a stir in religious circles when it was revealed it may have held the bones of Jesus's brother. Now, scholars are asking: could 'James, the son of Joseph' also be the son of Mary? Bob Harvey reports.


Bob Harvey
The Ottawa Citizen


Sunday, November 24, 2002

The stone ossuary calls into question the Catholic doctrine that Mary was a perpetual virgin, having conceived Jesus by divine miracle. The Bible does make reference to Jesus having siblings, but Catholicism teaches that they were really his cousins.

The ossuary is inscribed with words in Aramaic saying 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.' Scholars say it could be authentic.

TORONTO - The discovery of a limestone box believed to have held the bones of Jesus's brother James may force a re-evaluation of key Christian beliefs, including the Catholic doctrine that Mary was a perpetual virgin, scholars at a mammoth religious studies conference in Toronto said yesterday.

"Many Christians didn't know that the Son of God could have a brother," said Herschel Shanks, the editor of the Biblical Archeological Review, which broke the story last month.

The burial box, known as an ossuary, is inscribed with words in Aramaic, the language of first-century Israel, saying "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."

Experts among the 8,000 biblical scholars here for meetings of the American Academy of Religion and related biblical and archeological societies say although it is impossible to be certain, the odds are high that the ossuary did once contain James' bones.

The New Testament makes several references to James as the brother of Jesus, and to Jesus's brothers and sisters, while one Christian tradition suggests Jesus had four brothers and two sisters.

But the major Christian churches differ on how to interpret the relationship between Jesus and the relatives mentioned in the Bible.

The Catholic church teaches that Mary conceived a child by a divine miracle and was a perpetual virgin. It also interprets the Biblical passages about Jesus's brothers and sisters as referring to cousins of Jesus.

The Eastern Orthodox churches' view is that Jesus's siblings are Joseph's children from an earlier marriage.

Many Protestants believe that James is the full brother of Jesus and their other siblings, whom tradition says were named Mary, Salome, Joseph, Simon and Jude.

Oded Golan, the Israeli high-tech entrepreneur who found the limestone burial box near Jerusalem more than two decades ago, told a panel discussion yesterday that he plans eventually to send the small remaining fragments of what may be James' bones for DNA testing.

But he said that will not resolve the question of the blood relationship between Jesus and James, since there are no other known relics of members of Jesus's family. "There is nothing to compare them to," he said.

Mr. Golan has been collecting biblical antiquities since he discovered the oldest known dictionary as a child, and now owns the most important biblical archeological collection in Israel. That includes 30 of the burial boxes known as ossuaries.

But he says he ignored the burial box of Jesus's brother for decades because it was the least impressive in his collection.

He realized the importance of the ossuary only after a French expert in ancient inscriptions, André Lemaire, saw the ossuary. The Geological Survey of Israel then was called in to test samples from the ossuary, and said there was no reason to doubt its authenticity.

Mr. Shanks said the discovery "is having an enormous effect around the world."

"It is something visual binding us together over a 2,000-year period. It also focuses us on real life at the time of Jesus," he said during a panel discussion at the Royal Ontario Museum.

The ossuary was rushed from Israel to the downtown Toronto museum for its public debut, in order to give the largest annual meeting of biblical scholars a chance to examine it.

James is known to have been martyred in 62 A.D. for refusing to deny that Jesus was the Messiah that Jews still expect today.

The Pharisees among the Jews of the time believed that someday the dead would be bodily resurrected. Because of that, they placed corpses in a tomb until the flesh disintegrated, and the bones could be placed in a ossuary to await the resurrection.

Ben Witherington, of the Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, told the audience at the museum: "If the ossuary is authentic, we will need to re-evaluate and re-emphasize the Jewishness of the early Christians."

THE WORLD FAMOUS BOX